Effects of Lightning

Abstract

A REMARKABLE electric discharge occurred on Sir Robert Gordon's estate of Letterfourie in a small wood about four miles to the south-east of this place on November 16 last about 12.45 A.M. The accompanying sketch (scale 1/24″ = one yard), where fig 1 the trees (common fir and larch) struck are represented by black dots, will give you an idea. The soil and trees were slightly covered with snow, which had been falling at intervals since sunset on the 15th. On that night I observed two or three flashes of lightning accompanied by thunder, and a few days afterwards I was told by a local medical gentleman, who had visited the spot, that some eleven or twelve trees had been struck among the hills under peculiar circumstances. The snow was lying so deep at the time that the place was well nigh inaccessible, and owing to want of leisure and the continued severe weather, I had no opportunity of visiting the wood in question until a few days ago. I then ascertained from a farmer living 150 yards south-east of the spot, that the trees must have been struck simultaneously.